Epilepsy is one of the most prevalent neurological disorders affecting between 1% and 2% of the world population. It is characterized by recurrent, spontaneous, and unpredictable seizures that have been associated with a chemical imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters. In fact, clinical studies indicate that pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is related with a failure of neurtransmission mediated by glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid. Current epileptic treatments include anti-epileptic drugs that are ineffective in up to 30% of patients and can cause significant side effects or surgery that carries significant risks and may not be effective.
Electrical stimulation of the brain has shown promise in reducing seizure frequency. Invasive techniques using implantable devices that use deep brain stimulation, the responsive neurostimulator, and the vagus nerve stimulation have been extensively used with modest success. More desirable are noninvasive forms of brain stimulation for epilepsy such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation. However, these noninvasive devices suffer from being not widely accepted and to date have not shown any success in treating epilepsy.